The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

 Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part III – The  Rebel Ironclads: CSS Tennessee – “Old Buck” vs. Farragut

The CSS Tennessee (CSN Card 86 in Rebel Raiders) features in perhaps the most famous naval action painting of the Civil War:  the “Damn the Torpedoes” by William Heysham Overrend, or as it is formally known “An August Morning with Farragut: the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864.

David Glasgow Farragut (a leader in Rebel Raiders and USN Card 1) is in the rigging of the USS Hartford (USN Card 37) as she fires a broadside into the CSS Tennessee, aboard which is Confederate Flag Officer Franklin “Old Buck” Buchanan (also a leader in Rebel Raiders).    Historians Craig Symonds, who wrote a biography of Buchanan, and James McPherson, who chose the Overrend painting as the cover for his new War Upon the Waters,  told an audience in New York last October that they believe Farragut and Buchanan actually saw one another through the smoke at that moment as depicted in the painting….and that Farragut’s “damn” comment (if he indeed said it) was directed as much at his Rebel nemesis as the naval mines (torpedoes) in the bay.

This was not the first time “Old Buck” had led a force into battle aboard an ironclad – he was aboard the CSS Virginia (CSN Card 70) the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads (he was wounded, however, and was not aboard her the next day when his ship faced the USS Monitor (USN Card 19).  Buchanan climbed out of the safety of the ironclad to stand on her deck firing a musket at Union snipers – and was himself hit in the process. 

CSS Tennessee, like CSS Virginia, was designed to ram as well as to duel with Union warships.  Unfortunately, like so many Rebel ironclads, she had weak engines (as represented in the game by USN Card 47 – Engine Breakdown).  When “Old Buck” tried to ram USS Hartford at Mobile Bay, Captain Percival Drayton was able to maneuver out of the way – yet it was a close miss, for Drayton’s gunners were able to peer down into the hatches of the Rebel monster as they unleashed a mighty broadside into her.  Farragut himself was nearly wounded, as a rifleman aboard CSS Tennessee stuck out his gun and shot at the Union officer.  (As McPherson notes: “If the shooter had managed to hit him, Farragut would have been a martyred hero like Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar instead of merely the hero of Mobile Bay.”)

As CSS Tennessee slid past the Union flagship, Farragut ordered Drayton to turn and to follow her – and signaled USS Brooklyn (USN Card 13) to also engage her.   Buchanan managed to get his ship under the guns of Fort Morgan, but then turned around for another run at USS Hartford – two Union monitors (USS Manhattan and USS Chickasaw) intervened, pouring  solid shot from 15-inch guns and 11-inch bolts, respectively, into the ironclad.  The USS Winnebago, like USS Chickasaw a double-turreted monitor, joined in.  Pounded and rammed repeatedly by these five powerful Union ships, CSS Tennessee was reduced to a shattered hulk,  and “Old Buck,” similarly wounded, struck her colors.

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.  

July 13, 1863 merits a second entry (in addition to yesterday's post noting the start of the New York draft riots)...and ps: Happy Bastille Day!

July 13, 1863 – (Part II) – “Infernal Machines” Sink Union Ironclad

            Historical Event:    The ironclad USS Baron de Kalb was sunk this day 150 years ago by a Confederate “infernal machine” (a “torpedo” as they called it but what we today would dub a naval mine).   The ironclad was part of the Union force that captured Yazoo City  (on the river of the same name) during the mopping up operations that followed the surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson (see my blog entries for July 3 and July 8, respectively:    http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/2013/07/this-day-150-years-ago-in-rebel-raiders.html   and http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/2013/07/dedicated-to-civil-war-episodes-battles.html

            Game Connection:    Ironclads are vital to the Confederacy to defend its ports and for the Union to battle through the batteries, sink Rebel ships and clear the way for the Army to land during an assault in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.   Whether fighting into an ocean port or up or down the Mississippi or Yazoo, the Union player does have to take into account that the Rebel player can play many cards to impede his progress.  One of those is Infernal Machines (CSN Card 56). 

            

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Gunboats

  

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part II – The Gunboats: USS Unadilla : From Charleston Runners to Chinese Pirates

USS Unadilla (USN Card 17) was one of the first of nearly two-dozen of the “90-day gunboats” churned out by Union naval yards during the first months of  the war.  Built and launched in New York, the nearly 700-ton warship could move under steam or sail (as her sail plan was that of a two-masted schooner)  and could make 10 knots.  She carried five guns, including an 11-inch Dahlgren.  In January of 1862 she and USS Pembina fought a naval battle against five armed gunboats, three of which were damaged before the Rebels withdrew.

In addition to fighting other warships, bombarding forts and floating batteries and other combats, USS Unadilla captured many a blockade runner off Charleston, the Mary Teresa being her first catch in May 1862. (Hence her plus 2 advantage on the “Speed” die – which is rolled to intercept blockade runners.) Among her many prizes was the Princess Royal, which was carrying English-built steam engines for Confederate ironclads.   After the war the USS Unadilla was sent to the Far East to fight Chinese pirates.  Her last voyage was to Siam in 1868 – where after seven years in service the “90 day gunboat” was condemned as being too unseaworthy to risk a return voyage.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Gunboats

  

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part II – The Gunboats: USS Hatteras, The gunboat that took on the CSS Alabama

USS Hatteras (USN Card 16) was a civilian steamer outfitted as a gunboat and sent to blockade Key West and later Galveston.  There she was surprised and sunk by Raphael Semmes and his storied raider, CSS Alabama (CSN Card 63).    Prior to that fatal engagement, however, USS Hatteras captured seven blockade runners (hence her speed advantage as noted on the card).

USS Hatteras died well that day in January 1863.  She was chasing down a vessel that had identified itself as HBMS Petrel – but when Commander Blake brought his ship in close, Semmes showed his true colors and declared by signal “We are the CSS Alabama.”  The duel was fought at under 200 yards, with the USS Hatteras at first giving as good as she got with her 32-pounders…but after being holed and set afire, the Union warship was forced to strike.

Battle on the board: USS Hatteras vs CSS Alabama combat in Rebel Raiders

USS Hatteras is a Gunboat.  In a battle in Rebel Raiders she fires one die.  As her target is a Raider, she needs a 5 or 6 to hit and sink CSS Alabama.   (Her card does not give her any advantage in combat, only in searching for Raiders and Blockade Runners.)

CSS Alabama is a Raider.  In a battle a Raider also fires a single die – but her chances to hit and sink a gunboat are slightly better – a 4,5 or 6.   CSS Alabama, however, being a singularly epic man of war (her commander, Raphael Semmes, bridled at being labeled a “pirate” and sought out the USS Hatteras in part to prove that he was not afraid to take on an armed opponent) adds a plus to her die in combat (as per the bonuses listed on (CSN Card 63) - so, CSS Alabama thus rolls one dice, and with that bonus now needing a 3, 4, 5 or 6 ;  which apparently in the real war she rolled, and down went the USS Hatteras, which rolled her single die – but missed.

This day 150 Years Ago in Rebel Raiders's History

 This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

Gettysburg, Vicksburg and the Ships of Rebel Raiders.

 -Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas,  Gettysburg, Vicksburg and the Ships of Rebel Raiders.

On this, the 150th anniversary of the First Day of Gettysburg, it is easy to forget that at Vicksburg an equally vicious and vital struggle was also reaching its climax.  

As a strategic naval game, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas focuses far more on the epic siege of the fortress on the Mississippi than on the titanic contest that was played out on the fields of Pennsylvania.   The later is represented by the Lee Moves North card (CSN Card 77), while many of the leaders and great ships who fought at Vicksburg are also represented, notably: 

 -David Dixon Porter & His Little Mortar Boats (USN Card 2),

 -Grant Takes Command (USN Card 8),

-the tinclad gunboat USS Black Hawk (USN Card 10), 

-the "Pook's Turtle" ironclad USS Carondelet (USN Card 15), 

-the timberclad gunboat USS Tyler (USN Card 18),

-the phony ironclad Black Terror (USN Card 25)

-the big guns of the Siege Train (USN Card 48),

-and, for the South:

-the mines, torpedoes and other Infernal Machines (CSN Card 56),

-the general who tried to relieve the city, J.E. Johnston (CSN Card 91)

-the hidden batteries on the bluffs of Ring of Fire (CSN Card 101),

--and the only ship to see action on BOTH sides at Vicksburg:

--“Ellet’s Ram” USS Queen of the West (USN Card 38)– which was captured and put into service by the Confederacy as CSS Queen of the West

The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  The Banshee

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners – The Banshee

The Banshee (CSN Card 68) was one of the first ships built specifically to run the Union blockade.  She was also one of the first commercial vessels to build of steel.

 Under Joseph W. Steele the ship made eight successful runs, giving her owners their investment seven times over.  After a transatlantic maiden voyage in April 1863, most of her runs were from Bermuda or the Bahamas into Wilmington, where she was caught later that year on her ninth and final run by the USS Grand Gulf.  Taken to New York as a prize, she was purchased, armed and rechristened by the U.S. Navy as the gunboat USS Banshee, under which name she joined the blockade in Chesapeake Bay.

Silly Ships of the Civil War

As one follower of my blog remarked upon seeing the picture of the USS Choctaw (see the posting for yesterday, May 20)  "it's hard to imagine that was an actual warship!"

Well, it was -- and Civil War ships are indeed a bizarre  and ungainly lot, as there are ironclads, cottonclads, timberclads, putt-putt steamboats, mortar-boats, fire-rafts, paddlewheelers, armed merchantmen, screw sloops, steam frigates, traditional sailing ships, ships that combined two or  three types of propulsion, gunboats, rams, raiders, submarines, dummy warships (like the "Black Terror") ocean-going tugs - and even an ocean-going ironclad raider -- the CSS Stonewall.....

Most of those bizarre ships appear in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, as even a cursory look at the countermix or cards will show.   

One of the things i loved most about designing this game was researching and reading about the ships...and the men who served aboard them...

For a scholarly yet entertaining look at these ships and how they fought, I suggest James McPherson's War on the Waters, which came out last year.  You can hear him (and Craig Symonds, another great Civil War naval historian) talk about it on this link:  I was present at their session at the New York Historical Society last October -- and I am on camera at the 39 minute mark asking a question about Rebel Admiral Buchanan and Commander Montgomery, both of whom appear in the game.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/309606-1